@monovoce@germany@folklore@juergen_hubert If a new-born is not expected to live, the church allows an ad-hoc baptism, so that if/when the child dies, it may be admitted to heaven. This practice continues today.
@monovoce@SimonRoyHughes@germany@folklore There is another tale from Tyrol where distraught parents pay a "miracle doctor" to revive a dead child for an emergency baptism.
But when he makes the attempt, the spirit Perchta appears and berates the doctor - for she has already claimed the soul of the child.
@SimonRoyHughes@juergen_hubert@germany@folklore I should have looked up Perchta. I didn’t know she was a goddess, so I thought she might have been a spirit or some other supernatural entity. It’s interesting how pre-Christian beliefs would persist long after Christianity became the dominant religion.
@monovoce@germany@juergen_hubert@folklore No such spirit in Scandinavia, where the soul of the child would instead haunt the location of its death, yearning for a name (given by baptism). You could bring such a soul to rest by bestowing a name on the ghost.
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